1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the game of baseball, and more specifically to practice bats used to improve performance and control by the batter.
2. General Background
Conventional baseball bats are substantially circular in cross section along their entire length. Such bats are thicker at the ball striking or body portion than they are at the handle portion. Such bats are generally tapered between the thicker body portion and the thinner handle portion. The taper can vary in length and can extend along substantially the entire length of the bat. Hitting a pitched baseball with such a bat is generally considered to be an acquired skill that can be taught through good coaching. Hitting a pitched baseball with such a bat to a desired location with a desired trajectory is a skill that can generally only be achieved after much practice even by persons with good athletic capabilities. Good instruction by a capable coach can shorten the process of acquiring such ball destination control skills, but every good coach is looking for all the help they can get in instructing the batters.
Some attempts have been made to develop baseball bats having structural features that are intended to improve the performance of batters that have only modest skills. One example is found in Morris, U.S. Pat. No. 400,354 wherein the bat has a lower handle portion of circular cross section and an intermediate and ball hitting portions of oval cross section to present a larger ball striking-face. The Morris bat has a circular handle portion which gradually merges into an oval form. While such a bat might be initially useful for the novice to acquire the basic skill of having the bat contact the pitched baseball, it is of little use to the more experience player desiring to improve the ball destination control skills. An even more extreme example is found in Salsinger, U.S. Pat. No. 3,104,876 which provides for a body of square cross-section and a round handle including an attached corrugated finger grip. Any non-central contact between a pitched ball and either the square body of the Salsinger bat or even the oval body of the Morris bat would result in a torque being applied to the hands of the batter. While this might be useful to provide immediate feedback of how squarely the pitched ball was hit, it might also stimulate the batter to grip the bat harder to lessen the twisting action of the bat. It is generally thought that an overly firm grip of a baseball bat is undesirable and will not lead to enhanced location and trajectory control skills.
Some bats have been developed that include the traditional body of circular cross-section and handles of special shape. Mann, U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,545 discloses a baseball bat wherein both the body and handle have the traditional circular cross-section, however the handle is angularly offset with respect to a longitudinal axis of the body. It is difficult to see how the handle offset can be usefully employed to enhance the location and trajectory control skills of the emerging athlete. Barnea et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,733 discloses a baseball bat with a body of circular cross-section and a handle that is oval, oblong or elliptical. Such a bat can help naturally align the desired target area of the bat, often called the sweet spot, with the approaching pitched baseball. However, the reduced radius of curvature of the handle portion held between the base of the thumb and palm of the following hand can cause, upon contact with the pitched baseball, enhanced concentration of the impact on the base of the thumb which can be painful, and can inhibit proper follow-through by the batter. Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,270 and Kramer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,983 have suggested the adoption of handgrips for baseball bats that include resilient cushioning features to soften the impact on the base of the thumb of the following hand. These cushioning features significantly isolate the fingertips from contact with the bat such that no meaningful location and trajectory control is possible even by a very skilled player, let alone one still in training.
Thus there remains a need for a bat designed specifically to impart the skills of location and trajectory control, which when mastered can easily be translated by the batter for use with baseball bats of conventional design. There particularly remains a need for a bat designed to impart information concerning each contact with the pitched ball through the finger tips of the batter, thereby enhancing the desirable feedback that leads to increased location and trajectory control by the batter.